Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Florida International University/Reacting to the Past - French Revolution (Spring 2017)
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- Course name
- Reacting to the Past - French Revolution
- Institution
- Florida International University
- Instructor
- Alfredo García
- Wikipedia Expert
- Shalor (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Honors College
- Course dates
- 2017-01-09 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-04-21 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 42
Most history courses teach what happened. Historians deduce the factors—usually economic, sociological, political, and technological—that caused some consequence and the outcome is sometimes viewed from the perfection of hindsight as an inevitable process. Often missing from scholarly studies is the importance of individual actions and decisions. This course presumes that individuals play a significant role in history; it asserts that broader economic and social forces place constraints on what individuals may do, but that those forces do not determine human events. People do.
“Reacting” seeks to replicate the historical context of a particular past, with all its causal forces: economic, sociological, political, and otherwise. But it also provides students with the opportunity to explore counterfactual issues of individual agency: Would a different constellation of leaders in ancient Athens have effectively resisted the rise of Athenian democracy? Would a different set of arguments have prevented the execution of King Louis XVI in revolutionary France? Throughout the course, the vital significance of individual intervention is made apparent and all participants should be prepared to make significant contributions to the causes to which they are attached. This is not a course for the faint-hearted. Application, vigor, intellectual curiosity and flexibility are all vital attributes for those concerned.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Tuesday, 17 January 2017 | Thursday, 19 January 2017
- Assignment - Introduction to the Wikipedia project
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.
This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia.
Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page.
To get started, please review the following handouts:
- Assignment - Practicing the basics
- Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.
- It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
- When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 24 January 2017 | Thursday, 26 January 2017
- Assignment - Critique an article
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page.
- Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
- Choose an article on ANY topic, and consider some questions (but don't feel limited to these):
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
- Choose at least 2 of these questions relevant to the article you're evaluating. Leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Vincentleone (talk) 03:15, 17 April 2017 (UTC).
- Discussion
- What's a content gap?
Now that you're thinking about what makes a "good" Wikipedia article, consider some additional questions.
- Wikipedians often talk about "content gaps." What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?
- What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?
- Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?
- What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?
Please write responses to these questions on your sandbox page.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 31 January 2017 | Thursday, 2 February 2017
- Assignment - Add to an article
Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article. There are two ways you can do this:
- Add 1-2 sentences to a course-related article, and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
- The Citation Hunt tool shows unreferenced statements from articles. First, evaluate whether the statement in question is true! An uncited statement could just be lacking a reference or it could be inaccurate or misleading. Reliable sources on the subject will help you choose whether to add it or correct the statement.
Remember that citations must come from reliable sources. A reliable source includes: articles from peer-reviewed academic journals, books that have been published by major presses, website content from pages that end in ".edu," and scholarly reports from think tanks and other reputable organizations. Citations to other types of websites or publications will not be accepted.
- Assignment - Copyedit an article
Choose an article. Read through it, thinking about ways to improve the language, such as fixing grammatical mistakes. Then, make the appropriate changes. You don’t need to contribute new information to the article, but you do have to do a thorough cleaning of the article content. Pick a page that has content of interest to you so that you can help structure it overall, from beginning to end.
Week 4
- Course meetings
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- Tuesday, 7 February 2017 | Thursday, 9 February 2017
- Assignment - Discussion
- Thinking about sources and plagiarism
Please copy and paste these questions onto your Sandbox and answer them fully. As I have emphasized before, mediocre answers will get mediocre grades. Please make sure that you answer these questions with as much thought, depth, and breadth that you can.
- Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?
- What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?
- What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
- What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?
You will want to add these questions to your sandbox without deleting your previous answers. Take the time now to practice your coding for structuring by organizing your sandbox with nice headlines for each of your answers (such as splitting them up into weeks).
- Assignment - Choose possible topics
- Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
- Choose the articles that you can tackle, and post links to them on your sandbox page. For each link, give an explanation for why you have chosen that topic. Is there very little information on the Wikipedia page, thus a big opportunity for you to add information? Have you already found research on the topic?
- For articles that already exist, check the Talk page to see what other Wikipedians might be doing. Is it an active page? When was the last post?
- Make sure you provide as much information on your choices as you can.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 14 February 2017 | Thursday, 16 February 2017
- Assignment - Finalize your topic / Find your sources
- On the Students tab, assign your chosen topic to yourself.
- In your sandbox, write a few sentences about what you plan to contribute to the selected article.
- Think back to when you did an article critique. What can you add? Post some of your ideas to the article's talk page, too.
- Compile a list of relevant, reliable books, journal articles, or other sources. Post that bibliography to the talk page of the article you'll be working on, and in your sandbox. Make sure to check in on the Talk page to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
- Assignment - Draft your article
You've picked a topic and found your sources. Now it's time to start writing.
Creating a new article?
- Write an outline of that topic in the form of a standard Wikipedia article's "lead section." Write it in your sandbox.
- A "lead" section is not a traditional introduction. It should summarize, very briefly, what the rest of the article will say in detail. The first paragraph should include important, broad facts about the subject. A good example is Ada Lovelace. See Editing Wikipedia page 9 for more ideas.
Improving an existing article?
- Identify what's missing from the current form of the article. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article. Make notes for improvement in your sandbox.
Keep reading your sources, too, as you prepare to write the body of the article.
Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 21 February 2017 | Thursday, 23 February 2017
- Assignment - Discussion
- Thinking about Wikipedia
Please copy and paste these questions onto your Wikipedia user page and answer them fully.
- What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"?
- What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information?
- On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create?
- If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now?
- Assignment - Expand your draft
- Keep working on transforming your article into a complete first draft. Get draft ready for peer-review.
- If you'd like a Content Expert to review your draft, now is the time! Click the "Get Help" button in your sandbox to request notes.
- Assignment - Peer review and copy edit
- First, take the "Peer Review" online training.
- Select a classmates’ article that you will peer review and copyedit. On the Articles tab, find the article that you want to review, and then assign it to yourself in the Review column.
- Peer review your classmate's draft. Leave suggestions on the Talk page of the article, or sandbox, that your fellow student is working on. Other editors may be reviewing your work, so look for their comments! Be sure to acknowledge feedback from other Wikipedians.
- As you review, make spelling, grammar, and other adjustments. Pay attention to the tone of the article. Is it encyclopedic?
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 28 February 2017 | Thursday, 2 March 2017
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review
You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. It's time to work with that feedback to improve your article!
- Read Editing Wikipedia pages 12 and 14.
- Return to your draft or article and think about the suggestions. Decide which ones to start implementing. Reach out to your instructor or your Content Expert if you have any questions.
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 7 March 2017 | Thursday, 9 March 2017
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Once you've made improvements to your article based on peer review feedback, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the "mainspace."
Editing an existing article?
- NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
- Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!
Creating a new article?
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 13, and follow those steps to move your article from your Sandbox to Mainspace.
- You can also review the [[../../../training/students/sandboxes|Sandboxes and Mainspace]] online training.
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 21 March 2017 | Thursday, 23 March 2017
- Assignment - Continue improving your article
Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Try to link to 3–5 articles, and link to your article from 2–3 other articles.
Week 10
- Course meetings
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- Tuesday, 28 March 2017 | Thursday, 30 March 2017
- Assignment - Polish your work
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Content Expert at any time if you need further help!
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 4 April 2017 | Thursday, 6 April 2017
- Assignment - Final article
It's the final week to develop your article.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
- Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Content Expert at any time!
- Assignment - Reflective essay
Write a reflective essay (2–5 pages) on your Wikipedia contributions. NOTE THAT THIS IS DUE APRIL 16TH.
Consider the following questions as you reflect on your Wikipedia assignment:
- Summarizing your contributions: include a summary of your edits and why you felt they were a valuable addition to the article. How does your article compare to earlier versions?
- Did you receive feedback from other Wikipedia editors, and if so, how did you respond to and handle that feedback? What did you learn from contributing to Wikipedia? How does a Wikipedia assignment compare to other assignments you've done in the past? How can Wikipedia be used to improve public understanding of our field/your topic? Why is this important?
Week 12
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 11 April 2017 | Thursday, 13 April 2017
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.